Mr. Neil Richardson:

The office of the director of the Reserve was disbanded because of a Permanent Defence Force reorganisation that took place in 2012, the year before our own. This necessarily reduced the number of senior officers the PDF were allowed to have and that office was one that was cut. The revived office is a double hat for a particular individual. It is connected to the office of combat support and ISTAR. It is a double hat for the individual there. The current incumbent, Colonel Ger Buckley, is taking on two roles, the Reserve as well as his other job.

In terms of what this committee could do, we fundamentally believe that utilisation will save the Reserve. If a meaningful form of utilisation was provided, everything else would flow towards achieving that goal. If it is an amendment to the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006 that allows us to participate in these small but meaningful overseas tasks, whether training or otherwise, that would be a very serious step in giving the Reserve a meaningful role to play in the Defence Forces.